The New Stuff

Job applicants shifting to Internet

Although this trend is already obvious, it would be better to have a more specific measure of its usage.

According to The Conference Board, the world’s leading business membership and research organization, job seekers are steadily increasing their use of the internet as a key part of their job search.

In the most recent survey of workers who searched for a job between January and September 2007, 73 percent reported using the internet compared to 66 percent of job seekers in the same time period in 2005.

Moreover, the research shows that the Internet is being used for a variety of job search functions, from gathering employer/job information (59 percent of job seekers), submitting resumes and applications (57 percent), to posting resumes on a website (40 percent), and signing up for email notifications (30 percent).

However, over half (51%) of job seekers reported networking through friends and colleagues as part of their job search.

“Newspapers are still popular as a major job search method, but job seekers reported using them less, dropping from 75 percent to 65 percent between 2005 and 2007,” said Gad Levanon, Economist at The Conference Board.